Orono tackles party issue Councilors consider forming 3 task forces

ORONO – Students and long-term residents in this college town sounded off Thursday night at a special council meeting on ways to deal with unruly parties and raucous behavior in the community.

Also at the meeting, council chair Lianne Harris said the town probably would look to form a separate task force to deal with each of three issues that came up: law enforcement to control parties, the quality of apartment buildings, and the actions of some of the town’s landlords.

The meeting came after an early Sunday morning incident in which three unidentified individuals beat an Orono man who attempted to quiet their 3 a.m. party on Pond Street. Michael Curtis, 49, suffered a broken nose, two black eyes and several bruises.

None of the attackers has been arrested and the incident still is under investigation, police said Thursday. It is not known whether the assailants were University of Maine students.

More than 180 people packed the council chambers to hear UM and town officials discuss possible plans.

Some of those speaking implored the Orono Police Department to actually arrest people instead of just breaking up parties and moving people out into the street where they could amass at another location.

Police Chief Al Dravidzius said situations such as that on Saturday night were unusual for the high number of parties occurring. With such volumes of people, the officers aren’t in a position to arrest people.

“If you have 200 people and two officers, you’re not going to be making arrests, you’re going to be moving people along,” Dravidzius said.

The town’s police department and the university police department are working on ways to coordinate efforts in attacking the problem, Dravidzius said. The Orono Police Department has 10 officers while UM has 21.

Town Manager Gerry Kempen said the Police Department would operate indefinitely with two additional officers on Friday nights beginning tonight and three additional officers on Saturday nights.

On more than one occasion during the evening, audience members said the problem with partygoers is their lack of respect for long-term residents.

“These students choose to live among us, but they refuse to adapt to residential neighborhoods,” said Brian Molloy.

In a related issue, some students said the conditions of some of the town’s apartments and their absentee landlords are integral to understanding the situation of the students.

Nick Spann, a student who lives at 1021/2 North Main St., said he and four roommates had to pay six months in advance on a four-bedroom apartment with a rent of $1,300 a month. Spann said his door was recently ripped off its hinges when a gathering of people grew out of hand.

“The management company said they couldn’t come fix it because they’re operating on a limited budget,” Spann said. “It’s ridiculous.”

While he enjoys having a few friends over on occasion, Spann said he was going to have to start being extra careful after the events of this past weekend. Spann said he received word from his landlord, David Ekelund, that if the police come to the house, he and his roommates could expect to move out.

The rents are especially high in Orono because of heavy student demand. Some apartments have waiting lists with up to 75 names.

Since Orono is a college town, the parties aren’t expected to end anytime soon, according to student Cortlynn Hepler. Instead, a solution may come through compromise on the part of both the town and the university, Hepler said.

“I think that regardless of this meeting, we’re going to have a lot of tension in the community,” Hepler said. “I think it’s important that the university and the town look at their relationship as interdependent.”

Resident Chris Luthin echoed a similar sentiment about the relationship between the students and the long-term residents of the town.

“Let’s start thinking and let’s start working together,” Luthin said, looking at a group of students at the meeting.